Re: Torch
song

: : : : : :
I would like the origin of this expression. I know it's an unrequited love, but
why is it called in that name?
: : : : : : Thank you
: : : : : : miri

:
: : : : It probably comes from this expression:

: : : : : TO CARRY THE TORCH
FOR ONE - "It is the torch of love that is understood in this modern American
term, though sometimes no more than the torch of loyalty, for the 'torchbearer'
is one who is loud in his praise of a friend. But the torch has long been an emblem
of enlightenment and of burning devotion, and, in 1775, Richard Sheridan used
the expression, 'The torch of love,' in his epilog to 'The Rivals.'" From "A Hog on Ice" by Charles Earle Funk (1948, Harper & Row, New York).

: : : : : I am
guessing that the expression comes from the time when people actually did carry
torches at night.

: : : : In the UK, this is also known as "holding a torch
for someone".

: : : : We were just discussing the lost art of "torch singing"
and came across this... I hope it helps!

: :
: : : This is the third
and last volume of a trio of CDs devoted to that oft-cited but indefinable vocal
genre, torch singing. The dictionary defines "torch song" as "a sentimental love
song, typically one in which the singer laments a lost love." Along with being
too general, this definition omits what is perhaps the most obvious characteristic
of torch songs: They are almost always sung by women. While men can undoubtedly
carry a torch, there is no such creature as a male torch singer. The essence of
torch singing is a woman lamenting her lost love, i.e., her man. Hence the multitude
of classic torch songs with titles such as My Man, Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man,
The Right Kind of Man, The Man I Love, I Must Have That Man, What I Wouldn't Do
for That Man, and He's My Secret Passion, all of which are included in this series.

:
: : I would guess that one reason for the demise of torch songs and singers is
that the lament has become either passé or relegated to country music (same thing).
These days, the female vocalist's lament is more likely to be for a lost life
than a lost man.

: : : But in those "simpler" days of the 1920s and 1930s, when
having a man was equal to having a life, torch singing was really hot stuff. Indeed,
"red-hot momma" was once a popular euphemism for a torch singer. The third volume
covers the years 1935-1940 and includes most of the expected names: Ruth Etting,
Helen Morgan, Adelaide Hall, Hildegarde, Lee Wiley, Mildred Bailey, Connie Boswell.
It also includes some less familiar names: Bebe Daniels, Dixie Lee Crosby, Greta
Keller, Gertrude Niesen, and Una Mae Carlisle. The previous two volumes in the
series, both still in print, include even more hidden and unknown treasures; only
the most intrepid songbird collector will be familiar with the work of Sylvia
Froos, Welcome Lewis, Go Go Delyse, Zora Layman, and Eve Taylor, all of whom turn
up on Volumes 1 and 2.

: : Thank you so much for your fast, and comprehensive
answers, and of course, interesting.
: : It is a pun, the article is called
"torch song" and it is about "fusion torch" - and invention that is connected
with noclear power, and that was never implemented. That is why it is a torch
song. I have to find some analogy in Hebrew to it.
: : Than you very much

:
torch song A pop., sad song about lost or unrequited love. 1952: "If love is returned
the [popular] song is a simple ballad; if it is unrequited, the song is a torch
song." Haskin News Service, Aug. 12.
: carry the torch (for [someone]) To
suffer or be sad, melancholy, or self-pitying from unrequited love. 1949: "[He]
fell in love with a beautiful girl, only to discover that she was carrying the
torch for W.C. Fields." E. Johnson Phila. _Bulletin_, Sept. 6, 45/6. 1951: "After
Miss Jones divorced him, Walker was said to 'carry the tallest torch in town.'"
UP, Aug. 30.
: From _Dictionary of American Slang_ by Harold Wentworth
& Stuart Berg Flexner.
: Robert L. Chapman, in _Dictionary of American Slang,
Third Edition_ , adds:
: [origin unknown; said to have been coined by
a Broadway nightclub singer named Tommy Lyman, when he said, "My famous torch
song, 'Come to me, my melancholy baby'"; Venus, of course, carried a torch regularly]
:
----------
: "Sing a torch song" is commonly used in Broadway late-places as
a request for a ballad in commemoration of the lonesome state. Tommy Lyman is
said to have created the slang and he announced one night: 'My famous torch song:
"Come To Me, My Melancholy Baby". (_Vanity Fair_, November 1927)
: I was grateful
for the darkness and the torch songs. (G. Greene, _Lawless Roads_, 1939)
:
She is sometimes a movie vamp, or a torch singer. (_Times_, December 15, 1973)
:
The songs are pleasant parodies of Nashville, of torch songs and even of grand
opera. (_Listener_, October 13,1977)
: If this is "torch" singing, then Julie
London is not a flimsy key-ring flashlight. (_Listener_, June 9, 1983

Thank
you very much for the information, it's a tottaly new subject for me.
miri